CHAPTER-1

INAYAT SIDDIQUI…..

I was so happy today as my elder sister Kainaat was getting married. I was adjusting my dress after getting all ready when I heard my mother's voice.

"INAYAT!" Mom shouted from outside the door. I was already done with my makeup and was about to come out of my room but before Mom called out for me.

"I'm coming, Mom." I also shouted from my room and opened the door.

As soon as I opened the door, my breath hitched when I saw my beautiful Mom standing before me. She was always beautiful and Kainnat was the ditto copy of her. When I was totally opposite from them. Only my eyes were like them, green-hazel.

Mom was looking gorgeous. Who could say that after seeing her that she was the mother of two daughters. I was staring at her without blinking.

"What happened?" Mom asked, wrinkling her eyebrows together.

I palmed my cheeks and stared at her with admiration, “Oh, my dear Mom...." I squealed happily.

Then I held shoulders and turned her towards the mirror. "Look how beautiful you are looking. Seeing you, Dad will say. Warda, I want to marry you again today." I teased her and chuckled in the end.

Mom smacked my head, "Don't you have any shame? What are you saying?” Her face flushed but she managed to glare at me but then a smile captured her lips.

She cupped my face and placed a peck on my forehead.

"And you are looking like a princess in this golden colour dress.” She said, adoring me lovingly. Then she seemed lost in thoughts.

"What are you thinking, Mom?" I asked her as I sensed, she was thinking about something.

"I was thinking how beautiful you will look on your wedding day?” A warm smile captured her lips as she said dreamily.

"Stop thinking about my wedding and focus on your elder daughter. Let's go and see how she's looking in her wedding dress.” Saying that I dragged her with me.

"Mom, who is with her?" I asked her as since morning I wasn't getting a good vibe. She told me that my cousins were with her and the beautician was also with her.

I was feeling like something bad was going to happen. Sometimes when I feel like that it happens so I was really worried for Kainaat. Even she didn't tell Dad that she didn't want to get married to Aadil.

When we reached in front of her room. Her room was locked from inside, So we normally knocked on the door and summoned her to open the door. But we didn't get any response from inside and we couldn't hear any noise of others presence in the room as well.

Mom noticed Ayesha Appi passing by so she summoned her.

"Ayesha?" And she walked towards us.

"Yes, Warda Mami."

“Dear, you guys were inside, right? Then why are you outside? Who is with her? And why is she not responding?” Mom asked her and her voice was filled with worry.

"Mami, you calm down first. Everything is fine. The thing is that we had got Kainnat fully ready for the wedding. Then she told us that she wants to stay alone for some time. She wanted to calm her mind, as she was feeling nervous. You know every bride goes through this phase. Then we all thought why not give her some time to calm her mind, to compose herself. So we went outside. And she is alone inside now.”

Ayesha appi explained to us and suddenly I felt my heart clenched in fear and my body got numb. A thought has been scaring me for so long that I didn't share it with anyone. Little did I know because of my foolishness my whole life was going to take a ninety degree turn.

“Have you all lost your mind? How can you leave her alone?” I yelled at them and my whole body was shivering.

I knew it wasn't her fault as she didn't know anything. I should have stayed with Kainaat. But I didn't, which was my biggest mistake. Now I was regretting it.

I banged her door, getting panicked and nervous. The bad thoughts were looming around my head. Did she do something wrong with her? Or did she pull some inappropriate stunt that I was thinking about last night.

“Mom…..Mom, you have keys with you, right. Please give it to me right away.” I was breathing heavily and seeing me in that condition Mom also panicked. But she handed me the keys ring.

“What happened? Why are you looking so pale? Did something happen? Are you hiding something from me” Mom bombarded me with questions but I paid least attention to her questions and opened the door.

I ran my eyes in every corner of the room. But she was nowhere to be seen. I felt like I was struck by lightning.

Dammit!

My apprehensions have manifested to reality.

"Where is Kainaat? She's nowhere to be seen in the room. Even the bathroom door is open ." Mom asked, looking at me with fearful eyes.

I gulped down in fear. What I dreaded the most has come true. Now I was regretting not staying with her instead of going to get ready in my room. What do I do now?

“Oh, God! What have I gotten myself into? What am I supposed to say to her?” I thought in my mind while cursing myself.

Suddenly I felt someone shaking me. I opened my eyes and found Mom staring at me for an explanation.

“How…..would….I…..know…where…..she…. went? I…wasn't…even….here.” I was so scared that I was stuttering badly. I tried my best not to stammer in front of her. But all my effort went in vain. Because of my fear.

"Mami," Ayesha Appi suddenly shouted. And we looked at her. She was standing near the window.

I think I know what she has seen. We rushed towards her.

“Look at these bed sheets hanging with the window. I don't think I have to explain to you what these sheets are doing here. You are wise enough to know this.” Ayesha Appi said in a serious tone but it was coated with taunt.

“Oh, my God!” Mom exclaimed in shock covering her mouth and collapsed on the floor.

“What have you done, Kainaat? And why did you do this? Now how will I explain this to Asif? That his dearest daughter has run away from her marriage.” Mom was crying miserably while cursing Kainaat.

Appi ran outside to inform everyone about the news. And I sat beside Mom. “Mom, calm down and pull yourself together. You can't break like this at this crucial moment. And stop blaming yourself. You are not at fault. No one knew she would pull such a stunt.”

I said, holding her by her shoulder tightly. She tilted her head and squinted her eyes at me suspiciously. “Why do I feel like you knew about this before?” Mom asked me with her bloodshot red teary eyes.

I bowed my head in guilt and Mom understood my silent answer.

“If you knew about this then why didn't you tell us. We could have made her understand or came up with any solution. But now what will we do? Guests are waiting outside. The groom is waiting for her there.” She was yelling at me but I didn't have anything to say in my defense.

“You stupid girl. Because of your stupidity, everything is ruined now. Our reputation is at stake now. Everyone will make fun of us.” Mom smacked my arm many times to take out her anger but I didn't say anything. She was angry so I just bared everything.

“How could I say this? When I found out about it I was so shocked that I was totally shaken up. I was worried that if I say this to Dad how he will react. You know his temper and his heart condition wasn't well. I was worried that if I told him about her affair with a guy something bad would happen to Dad. Thinking about all this I decided to hide this matter from you all. I had tried my best to make her understand that what she was doing was wrong.”

“After some time she told me that she will do the marriage and forget about that guy. But who knew what was going on in her mind. She lied to me. And like a selfish girl she ran away thinking about her own happiness. She didn't even think about the consequences of her foolish act. What we have to go through. I just don't understand if she didn't want to get married to Aadil then why did she do the engagement.”

"WARDA" We heard a loud voice. That was Dad's voice. He entered the room and some of our relatives also followed him to the room.

“What am I hearing?” Dad asked Mom while advancing towards us in rage.

“I'm asking you something, Warda?” Dad roared. And we both flinched from our place.

"I had no idea about this matter. I didn't know she liked someone else and she wasn't happy with the marriage proposal." Mom replied, hanging her head low.

“Now I'm regretting giving her so much freedom. People were right that we shouldn't give so much freedom to the girl's. But I never paid any attention because I believed that my daughters are different. They would never do anything that would question my upbringing. But look, what she has done today. She has proved me wrong. She has ruined this family’s reputation in front of the whole community.”

Dad sat on the bed placing his palm on his forehead in tension.

“She was such a responsible and mature child. She took up all the responsibilities on her own. Even in our dreams we would never have thought that she would ever do all this. She was so intelligent. So how did all this happen? It is all our fault. We could not become good parents. Was there something missing in our upbringing” Dad was crying while cursing himself.

“Not only you but none of us would have thought that she would do something like this. But unfortunately it all happened.” Uncle said with a sad face.

"Asif Bhai, Wasim Sahab is asking for you." Uncle entered the room and informed him.

"What am I supposed to tell him?" Dad’s voice was low and his forehead was filled with the lines of tension.

“Whatever happened was not right. But the main thing is how do we tell them this now?” Another Uncle spoke up.

“What happened has already happened, now we have to bear the consequences. We have to tell them everything.” Uncle said and all the males walked out from the room to meet the Waziri Family and inform them about this matter.

“God knows what will happen now. Please God help us. Only you can handle this matter.” I prayed to the Almighty with closed eyes.